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Социально-экономическое неблагополучие и его связь с восприятием будущего
The paper considers two groups of Russians – those who objectively have low incomes and subjectively perceive their financial situation as bad. Based on the data of the survey conducted by the Institute of Sociology FCTAS RAS in March 2022, their expectations regarding their personal future and the future of the country as a whole are analysed. It is shown that from 2015 up to 2022 Russians demonstrate moderately pessimistic sentiments about their future, which was not observed before the recession of 2014–2016. Worry about the future (both their own and the country’s) is significantly correlated with subjective ill-being, while it is practically not correlated with low level of income. With the growth of subjective well-being pessimism about the future significantly decreases, fears and other negative emotions disappear. This is not the case with income growth, since external risks cannot be levelled by financial resources alone. It is noted that prolonged subjective disadvantage leads to negative social consequences (refusal to invest in human capital, from attempts to improve their financial situation, etc.), so the stability and fairly widespread negative assessments of the future requires attention from the state. It has been shown that subjectively ill-being Russians who connect their problems with external factors (institutional environment, etc.) more often than low-income Russians form a request for the Western way of development of the country. However, such a request is not yet widespread. In order to reduce the number of subjectively ill-being Russians and improve their expectations of the future, it is necessary to continue work on improving the accessibility of medical services to the population, as well as work with the labour market, especially in terms of protecting the labour rights of workers.